Local Governance Innovative Solutions Bank in the Region Launched

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Ilocos, during the annual evaluation of the Local Governance Regional Resource Center (LGRRC-1), held Jan. 24, launched the Local Governance Innovative Solutions Bank (LGISB).

“It is a web-based application that works like a usual bank which will enable the local government units as users not just to search and view information but also to deposit and withdraw best practices in local governance,” Marife Doculan, planning officer of DILG-1, explained.

She added, “The LGRRCs shall collect and organize the information on local governments’ initiatives which have successfully addressed governance or development issues then all these best practices shall be documented and made accessible and eventually uploaded to the LGRRC website.”

The LGRRC is established to facilitate convergence and among the agencies that encourage learning and sharing of information, resource, and knowledge in promoting excellence in local governance.

“Through the LGRRC, we want to create a culture of learning to achieve excellence in local governance and it has to be created amongst the multi-stakeholders like the DILG, LGUs, academe, and government agencies,” DILG-1 Assistant Regional Director Victoria Mendoza, also the LGRRC program manager, said.

She also informed that as part of knowledge sharing, they conducted recently a forum on the Business Regulatory Reforms sharing the gains and benefits on simplification of business processes, federalism summits, and IEC production.

Meanwhile, Regional Director James Fadrilan said, “while our LGRRC has consistently been recognized as the best performing center for the past four years, we want to strengthen it and the Multi-Stakeholders Advisory Council (MSAC), establish Provincial Resource Centers, and continue with the build-up of knowledge assets to continue serving the needs of our clients.”

The Region 1 LGRRC Library at present has more than 2,000 knowledge products (KPs) classified under five local governance areas, digital or e-copies of these KPs, brochures, and flyers.

In the same event, the Capacity Development Awards for Catalyst of Excellence was also introduced.

Outstanding DILG officers, personnel, and teams can be nominated and recognized for their creativity, innovativeness and productivity in the field of capacity development through the LGRCs.

Part of the two-day activity held in Angeles City was the knowledge sharing by the City Tourism Office and Clark Development Corporation who imparted their best practices to the attendees from the DILG and members of the MSAC.

The center in the region was launched in 2006 with the MSAC, of which the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Region 1 is a member of.